Friday, September 08, 2006

Expecting the Bush administration to be honest and accountable, my bubble is frequently burst. The latest Senate report cites Saddam Hussein considered Al-Qaida a threat, not an ally against America. AP news had this to say.

The report discloses for the first time an October 2005 CIA assessment that prior to the war Saddam's government "did not have a relationship, harbor or turn a blind eye toward" al-Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or his associates.As recently as an Aug. 21 news conference, Bush said people should "imagine a world in which you had Saddam Hussein" with the capacity to make weapons of mass destruction and "who had relations with Zarqawi."

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the report was "nothing new."

A second part of the report concluded that false information from the Iraqi National Congress, an anti-Saddam group led by then-exile Ahmed Chalabi, was used to support key U.S. intelligence assessments on Iraq.

Two things are concerning. One the President can something erroneous less than three weeks ago and this is nothing new? As frequently as Bush lies or misrepresents, on that Tony may well have a point. It may not be new, but it is significant. Does it indicate the President lost the script? Once one starts telling lies, the web becomes very difficult to weave in a believable pattern.

Two, the use of democracy lovers in other countries could well bring out their Chalabis. Throwing around millions of dollars to promote democracy in Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela could well bring similar mis-information followed by disastrous results.

How did Republicans react to the report?

Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said the mistakes of prewar intelligence have long been known and "the additional views of the committee's Democrats are little more than a rehashing of the same unfounded allegations they've used for over three years."Pat may want to get his President to shut his yapper as he made the fictional connection just three, not years, but weeks ago. Bush has kept it modern history.